Unilever Selected As Winner Of The 2013 Gold Medal For International
Corporate Achievement In Sustainable Development

Award ceremony to take place on May 9, 2013

December 11, 2012 11:10 AM Eastern Daylight Time

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The World Environment Center (WEC) is pleased to announce that its 29th
Annual Gold Medal for International Corporate Achievement in Sustainable
Development will be awarded to Unilever. The company is being recognized
for its deep and longstanding commitment to advancing environmental
sustainability through its strategic business initiative, the Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan, that is applied to its products, governance
structure, supply chain and consumers. Unilever’s CEO Paul Polman will
accept the Gold Medal Award on behalf of the company on Thursday, May 9,
2013, during the Gold Medal Presentation Ceremony in Washington, DC.

“On behalf of the independent Gold Medal Jury, I extend my sincere
congratulations to Unilever for its extraordinary commitment to
sustainable business throughout its operations. The scale and depth of
Unilever’s impact across sustainable farming, logistics and consumer
behavior has raised the bar for global businesses”

Unilever’s Gold Medal submission was evaluated in a global competition
with companies in multiple business sectors by WEC’s independent Gold
Medal Jury chaired by Dr. Joel Abrams, Professor Emeritus at the
University of Pittsburgh. The Jury found that Unilever earned the award
on the merits of its long-term dedication to integrating sustainability
into its business products and operations, its deep history of improving
global environmental standards, and its comprehensive Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan business strategy that contains specific
performance goals and more than 50 targets.

This Unilever Sustainable Living Plan addresses environmental
improvements not only in Unilever’s direct operations but with its
suppliers, distributors and, most innovatively, in how consumers use its
brands. Half of Unilever’s raw materials come from either farms or
forests, and the company has committed to the sustainable sourcing of
100% of its agricultural raw materials within eight years. In addition,
the initiative commits to helping more than one billion people take
action to improve their health and well being, and finally, it promises
to cut the environmental footprint of Unilever products in half while
doubling the size of its business.

“On behalf of the independent Gold Medal Jury, I extend my sincere
congratulations to Unilever for its extraordinary commitment to
sustainable business throughout its operations. The scale and depth of
Unilever’s impact across sustainable farming, logistics and consumer
behavior has raised the bar for global businesses,” stated Gold Medal
Jury Chairman Joel Abrams.

Unilever CEO Paul Polman said, “I am delighted that WEC has recognized
Unilever with its Gold Medal. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is at
the heart of our new business model for sustainable, equitable growth
and, excitingly, is inspiring people inside and outside the company.
We’re 18 months into the Plan and we’ve already achieved much, but it
will all be for naught if we can’t persuade others – consumers, NGOs,
governments, businesses – to each take small actions individually to
make a big difference collectively and to work in partnership to help
solve some of the big issues the planet faces.”

The WEC Gold Medal Jury is independent of WEC and its programs, and is
composed of international leaders from academia, government,
non-governmental organizations and retired industry professionals.

About Unilever

Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fast moving consumer
goods with operations in over 100 countries and sales in 190. Consumers
buy 170 billion Unilever packs around the world every year, and our
products are used over two billion times a day. We have more than
171,000 employees, and generated annual sales of €46.5 billion in 2011.
More than half our sales are generated in emerging markets (56% in
2011). Working to create a better future every day, we help people feel
good, look good and get more out of life with brands and services that
are good for them and good for others. Our portfolio includes some of
the world’s best known brands such as Knorr, Hellmann’s, Lipton, Dove,
Vaseline, Persil, Cif, Radox, Sure and Lifebuoy.

Our ambition is to double the size of our business, while reducing our
overall environmental impact (including sourcing, consumer use and
disposal). We are also committed to doing what we can to improve health,
nutrition and hygiene, with goals to help more than a billion people
take action to improve their health and well-being, as well as to source
all our agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Supporting our
three big goals are more than 50 time-based targets in the Unilever
Sustainable Living Plan.

Unilever has led the Food Producers sector in the Dow Jones
Sustainability World Indexes for 14 consecutive years. In 2012 we were
also named leader of the Food and Beverage supersector. We are included
in the FTSE4Good Index Series and attained a top environmental score of
5, leading to inclusion in the FTSE4Good Environmental Leaders Europe 40
Index. In 2011 Unilever led the Climate Counts Company Scorecard and for
the second year we topped the list of Global Corporate Sustainability
Leaders in the GlobeScan/SustainAbility latest annual survey (2012).

For more information about Unilever and its brands, please visit www.unilever.com.

About the World Environment Center

The World Environment Center, headquartered in Washington, DC, with
offices and operations in emerging and developed markets, is unique in
its direct application of sustainable development strategies and
practices to the business operations of global companies. WEC creates
sustainable business solutions through individual projects in emerging
markets; convenes leadership roundtables to shape strategic thinking
across a range of sustainability topics; and honors industry excellence
through the annual awarding of its Gold Medal Award. An independent
non-profit organization, WEC conducts no advocacy activities.

Contacts

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